The problem of maintaining privacy and safety of user data is particularly prevalent nowadays. Data can be stored on desktop PCs or servers, and in those cases, data protection can be provided through traditional mechanisms of data loss prevention (DLP), such as the use of encryption systems, data backup, or file shredders which permanently remove data.
In the world of mobile devices, however, the possibility of losing or misplacing the device, leaving the device unattended, or the possibility of theft of the device, present an entirely different sort of challenge. In these cases, the user is not able to fully prevent the device itself (containing personal and often very important data) from falling into the wrong hands.
Application of conventional DLP approaches to mobile devices is further complicated because the devices themselves have much less computing capacity than PCs. Mobile devices are battery-powered, and are often optimized for energy efficiency. A data protection system must therefore present a minimal burden to users, operate efficiently to preserve processor and memory capacity in the mobile device for system resources and user applications, and avoid presenting a significant resource drain resulting in high energy utilization. Conventional DLP approaches such as system-wide deployment of file encryption would require extra processing overhead of encryption, decryption, or both, each time data is to be written, accessed, or modified.